US Open: Gaël Monfils’ remarkable longevity in numbers

Gaël Monfils turned 40 in New York and marked the occasion in the most fitting way possible: with another US Open main-draw victory. Like Jimmy Connors in 1992, he won on the day of his 40th birthday, becoming the oldest player to win a main-draw match at the tournament since the American achieved the same feat.

The Frenchman’s record book stretches well beyond Flushing Meadows. In August, he became the oldest player since Pancho Gonzales in 1970 to win a match at the Canadian Open, doing so at 39 years and 11 months after defeating world No. 67 Kamil Majchrzak in Montreal.

In January 2025, Monfils won the Auckland ATP 250 at 38 years and four months. That made him the oldest player to win a main-tour title since Ken Rosewall, who was over 43 when he won in Hong Kong in 1977. Monfils also broke Roger Federer’s previous record for the oldest ATP champion since the circuit’s creation in 1990.

At Wimbledon in 2025, he came back to beat fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-2. At 38 years and 303 days, he became the oldest Frenchman to reach the second round at the London tournament. In Miami that year, he became the first player to reach the last 16 of the same Masters 1000 event 20 years after first reaching that stage.

Monfils has reached at least one ATP final in every season from 2005 through 2023, a run of 19 consecutive years. He has won 13 titles from 35 finals, and he has won at least one Grand Slam singles match in 22 straight seasons, matching Federer and Novak Djokovic.